HACKADAY prize entry : DEER — AN electronic REPELLENT

Ultrasonic repellent gadgets utilized to keep away insects, rodents, birds, as well as even big animals have been around for rather a while, however their effectiveness depends upon who you ask.  Some critters just don’t seem affected, while some others definitely will prevent being around such a device. Deploying a few of these gadgets to frighten off animals seems to be working rather well for [Ondřej Petrlík]. around where he lives, the fields of tall grass requirement to be mowed down during the spring. Unfortunately, the tall grass is perfect for young, newborn animals to stay hidden as well as safe. The mowing machines would frequently cripple as well as hurt such animals, as well as [Ondřej] desperately wished to solve the issue as well as prevent these mishaps.

He developed an electronic repeller to keep away wild animals as well as their young from his farm/ranch/range back in the Czech Republic. He utilized an Arduino mini to drive a big piezo transducer to frighten away the wild animals from the vicinity of the device. He likely utilized a high sufficient frequency beyond human range, however we’ll understand more when he publishes his code as well as details. There are likewise a few big 10mm LED’s – either to visually find the gadget or assist drive the animals away in conjunction with the ultrasound, with an LDR that activates the LEDs at night. utilizing the Arduino assists to turn on the transducer at random intervals, as well as hopefully, he is utilizing a variety of different frequencies so the animals don’t ended up being immune to the device.

His very first prototype was cobbled together utilizing vanilla, off the shelf parts. An Arduino, a step up converter, an LDR, a couple of LEDs, a reed switch for powering it on via a magnet, as well as a big ultrasonic transducer, all powered by three alkaline AA batteries. He stuffed everything inside a weatherproof molded enclosure, holding everything together with a great deal of hot glue. This didn’t make it extremely tough for the long-term, outside field use. While the prototype worked well, he needed a number of of the gadgets to be put all around his farm. To make assembly simple as well as make it more reliable, he designed a custom PCB to in shape in the weather condition proof enclosure. This enabled him to quickly install all the needed parts for a more dependable result. His job is still a work in progress, so if you have dealt with these kinds of ultrasonic repellent gadgets to keep away animals, as well as have any type of insights that may assist him, do chime in with your comments. [Ondřej] seems quite satisfied with the results so far.

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